Christie Jordan

Christie Jordan

As the executive director of the Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas, Christie Jordan is helping the hungry.

The nonprofit organization collects, stores and distributes food to more than 100 nonprofit agencies in 12 counties in northeast Arkansas.

“I knew this was the job I was meant to do,” the 39-year-old Jordan said. “I enjoy coming to work ... to help improve the lives of other people.”

The agency has seven full-time employees, three part-time workers and an army of about 470 volunteers. The Food Bank serves more than 5,000 people every week and 67,000 unduplicated individuals each year.

Jordan was hired at the Food Bank in 1997 as its executive director and has overseen its growth.

In 2011, it distributed 3 million pounds of food, up from 2.6 million pounds in 2010.

The Food Bank has a budget of a little more than $1 million annually.

Jordan helped secure a $7.9 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation to assist in paying for a 50,000-SF food bank warehouse to replace its 12,000-SF facility. The warehouse should be completed by the end of the year.

Jordan also is involved in programs to help the hungry even when she’s not working at the Food Bank. In 2004, she was a founding member of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance of Little Rock and is still on its board of trustees.

In 2011, Jordan was honored as the nonprofit executive of the year in the inaugural Northeast Arkansas Business of the Year awards.Jordan said she knows she’s making a difference in people’s lives.